For a number of years amylase enzymes have been used for a variety of different purposes, the most important of which are starch liquefaction, textile desizing, starch modification in the paper and pulp industry, and for brewing and baking. A further use of amylases which is becoming increasingly important, is the removal of starch containing soils and stains during the washing of fabrics, hard surfaces and dishes.
Indeed, amylase enzymes have long been recognised in dishwashing, hard surface cleaning and laundry compositions to provide the removal of starchy food residues or starchy films from dishware, flatware, glasses and hard surfaces or to provide cleaning performance on starchy soils as well as other soils typically encountered in laundry applications.
WO94/02597, Novo Nordisk A/S published Feb. 3, 1994, describes cleaning compositions which incorporate mutant amylases. See also WO94/18314, Genencor, published Aug. 18, 1994 and WO95/10603, Novo Nordisk A/S, published Apr. 20, 1995.
Other amylases known for use in cleaning compositions include both .alpha.- and .beta.-amylases. .alpha.-Amylases are known in the art and include those disclosed in EP 252,666; WO91/00353; FR 2,676,456; EP 285,123; EP 525,610; EP 368,341; and British Patent specification no. 1,296,839 (Novo).
Examples of commercial .alpha.-amylases products are Termamyl.RTM., Ban.RTM. and Fungamyl.RTM., all available from Novo Nordisk A/S Denmark.
Recently new amylases have been identified and are described in WO95/26397, Novo Nordisk A/S, published Oct. 5, 1995, disclosing an .alpha.-amylase having a specific activity superior than Termamyl.RTM..
Combinations of an .alpha.-amylase with a starch debranching enzyme selected from pullulanase, isopullulanase and iso amylase are described in EP 368 341, J04065494 and J06172796 for enhanced detergency against dirt containing starch, fat, oils and proteins in laundry and automatic dishwashing.
It has now been discovered that odorous materials are entrapped into different types of amylase-susceptible and everyday stains found on fabrics, dishware, hard surfaces and the like and that an uncomplete and unefficient removal of such stains leads to malodor formation.
It has now surprisingly been found that the combined use of different .alpha.-amylases improves the removal of malodor coming from different types of amylase-susceptible and everyday stains. Especially good malodor control on everyday stains such as body soils is obtained when the amylases are further combined with a cellulase.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide detergent compositions containing .alpha.-amylases which exhibit a good malodor control on amylase-susceptible and everyday stains.
It is another object of the present invention to provide detergent compositions containing .alpha.-amylase enzymes which exihibit a good malodor control on body soils.